Darkness Will Bind Us
by SpellStorm
Summary: He never expected he'd find anyone he had anything in common with. But when he meets the girl by the river, maybe he's found someone worth living for. Second of seven future-fic one-shots leading up to a multi-chapter. Slight spoilers for House of Hades.


**WARNING: Minor spoilers for The House of Hades. If you don't want to find out Nico's big secret before you read it in the book, you might not want to continue. If you're in the process of reading the book, the secret I'm talking about is revealed when Jason and Nico meet Cupid/Eros.**

**One-shot number two of a series of seven. If you haven't read the first, _With All My Heart_, please go check it out! It doesn't connect directly to this except that they are both part of my future AU.**

**I don't know anything about Greece, so I apologize for any mistakes.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_Greece. The one place I _don't _want to be_, Nico thought as he trudged through the streets. At least he hadn't ended up in China like last time, but really, he should know better than to shadow-travel on little sleep and an empty stomach.

It wasn't Athens or anywhere in Epirus, luckily. But he just _had_ to land in Attica. He was on the other side of the region from Athens, there was that at least, but it didn't make him very happy.

_Why didn't I just stay in Manhattan?_ he asked himself, kicking a rock in his path.

His mind answered the question for him. _Because Percy and Annabeth's son just turned one, and it's hard enough being around Percy most of the time without looking at children who resemble him remarkably._

Why couldn't he be normal? Why couldn't he have a crush on someone he _didn't _have to see almost every day? He had a rough enough time without Wise Boy and Seaweed Girl calling him _Uncle Nico_ twenty-four-seven. Not to mention the occasional looks from Annabeth that made him think she knew about him.

(And how could she not know? It'd been seven years since Nico met Percy, and Annabeth had spent enough time with them both (thanks, Hazel) to recognize that Nico's interest in Percy went beyond that of a cousin or a friend.)

Nico was passing the Asopus River now. He kicked another stone and watched it roll down the riverbank, waiting for the telltale _plunk_ of it hitting the water. Instead, he heard a grunt.

Frowning, Nico walked closer and peered through the tall weeds.

A young girl sat on the riverbank, a piece of soaked cardboard the only thing separating her behind from the mud. Her clothes were in tatters and may have once been black, but they were too caked with dirt now to tell. Her hair was long and tangled, falling out of what might've been an attempted braid. Her skin was pale, almost as pale as Nico's, which he'd thought impossible. Even Bianca's skin had been darker than his. The girl's feet were bare, cracked, and bleeding.

Nico thought he'd been silent, but he jumped when he heard an accented voice.

"It's rude to stare at people," the girl said in perfect English. "And to kick rocks at them."

Nico slowly stepped out from the weeds, not minding that his shoes were getting muddy.

"I didn't know you were here," he said.

She snorted. "Obviously. No one does; that's _why_ I'm still here." She looked down towards the earth. "Of course, _he_ knows I'm here. But that doesn't matter, because he never pays me much attention. Not that I care," she added hastily. "But it'd be nice every so often."

Nico looked at her warily. "Who knows you're here?"

She finally turned to look at him, with eyes that appeared to be black. "My father."

"And… who is your father?" Because if Hades had another child from the 1940s, Nico was going to –

"Thanatos."

Nico's mind skidded to a halt. _What?_

"Excuse me, did you say Thanatos?"

The girl scoffed. "Oh, please. I know you're like me, I could sense the death and darkness from miles away. You're a child of the Underworld, just like me."

Nico was shocked, but he shook his head and blinked. "No. I mean, yes, I'm a child of the Underworld, but my father isn't Thanatos. I'm the son of Hades."

She stared, eyes wide. "Hades? I didn't think he had children."

Nico nodded. "We're… not from this time, exactly, but yes. There were three of us, but now… well, I'm Hades' son, and I have a half-sister who is the daughter of Pluto…. You know about the Roman gods and demigods?"

"Oh, yes." She nodded. "Mama used to tell me stories about them. She said they didn't like Thanatos, though, so I was never to associate with them." She snorted. "As if anyone would want to talk to me. My words are nothing but trouble."

She said the last bit as if reciting something. "Who told you that?" Nico asked.

She looked back at the river. "The _frontistés_ who raised me."

Nico's mind immediately translated the Greek to _caregivers_. "You live in an orphanage?"

"I _did_," she corrected. "When I turned ten I ran away; there are so many other kids they hardly bothered to look for me. I hitchhiked all the way here from Thessaly."

They were silent for a moment, and then Nico sat down next to the girl. She glanced at him, startled.

"What are you doing?"

"Sitting," he replied.

"Why? It's all muddy."

He smiled a bit. "I don't mind." He held out a hand. "Nico di Angelo."

She looked at him cautiously before accepting his hand. "Melantha."

They shook.

After a minute, Nico turned to Melantha. "So why Attica?"

She didn't look at him. "My Mama had family here, and I thought I could convince them to want me. They didn't even hear my name before they were refusing to take me in when Mama died. Anyway, when I couldn't find them, I just decided to stay in Attica. It's better than the orphanage."

Nico was startled to hear the bitterness that permeated her words. He had a sudden memory of his eleven-year-old self, curled up in front of a fire by the River Styx, listening to the words being whispered to him and grasping at them desperately, wanting something he could hold on to. He remembered his few conversations with Bianca after she'd died and how she'd told him he had to forgive Percy.

"_Holding grudges is dangerous for a child of Hades. It is our fatal flaw."_

He could see something of himself in this girl, now, could hear it in her voice, and he wondered if grudges weren't just a child of Hades' weak point.

Standing up, he once more offered his hand. "Come with me."

She stared at him in shock. "What?"

"Come with me," he repeated. "Look, you obviously need a shower and some new clothes, and I've gone without food enough times to know that you're close to starving. I don't like the look of your feet, either; you need some nectar."

She didn't say anything, and he sighed.

"I don't know how old you are, Melantha, but I do know that living on your own isn't safe, especially for a demigod. You need a place to stay. I have an extra room in my apartment; at least give it a look?"

She was silent for so long he didn't think she was going to answer, but then she spoke.

"They were right, you know," she said softly. "The _frontistés_. Bad things happen around me, and they usually occur after I speak."

He crouched down and looked her in the eyes. This close, he realized they were a dark green. "Everyone has bad experiences, Melantha. Don't let those experiences define you." He stood up and held out his hand again.

She looked at him for a moment.

"Okay," she said finally, and let him help her up.

_~Darkness Will Bind Us~_

"Nico?"

The son of Hades looked up from his book. Melantha stood in the doorway of the kitchen, looking in but staying in the hall. Her hair, which he now saw was brown-black, hung down to her waist in a long, straight curtain. She wore an old sweatshirt of Nico's and a pair of his sweatpants. Without all the dirt, he could see that her pale skin was flawless.

He put the book on the table. "You look better."

She glanced at her hands. "Thank you." Cautiously, she walked further in, mindful of the bandages binding her feet. She pointed to the table. "May I…?"

He gestured. "Of course."

She pulled out the chair across from him and sat down. They were quiet for a long time, Nico studying Melantha as she studied her hands. Finally, she broke the silence.

"Why did you offer me a room?" she asked. "How do you know I won't rob you or kill you in your sleep?"

Nico raised an eyebrow. "You needed someplace to stay. And besides, I trust you."

She looked confused. "But you don't know me."

He sighed. "No. But someone once told me that sometimes, you've just got to take a risk and hope for the best, because hiding isn't the answer."

Her voice was quiet. "Whoever told you that was smart."

Nico's lips quirked a little. "Yeah, he his."

She hesitated, then said, "No one's ever taken care of me like this before. Usually they just walk off without giving me a second thought."

He stood up and walked to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She flinched but didn't shake it off.

"I've been ignored and forgotten before," he told her. "And I'm promising you right now, Melantha: I'll never let that happen to you."

* * *

**When Nico says, _Yeah, he is_, he's referring to Jason, who, in The House of Hades, tells Nico, "Nico, you _do_ choose how to live your life. You want to trust somebody? Maybe take a risk that I'm really your friend and I'll accept you. It's better than hiding." So yeah. I love Jason; I don't know why other people don't.**

**For anyone interested, Melantha means "dark flower" and is of Greek origin. There's a reason for her name; you'll see.**

**I've warned about spoilers, so don't yell at me if you read something you don't wanna read. There's been a lot of controversy about Rick Riordan making Nico gay. Guys, _think about this_. Nico was grew up in the 1940s, where this sort of thing would be unthinkable. He was saved by a demigod who seemed to come straight from Mythomagic, and even after Bianca died, he still didn't want to kill him. He risked his father's wrath in order to make sure Percy wouldn't die in the war, and he convinced Hades to fight. In an indirect way, I saw this coming. And anyway, he's still the same Nico we all know and love. His sexual preference doesn't change who he is.**

**Anyway, that's my spiel. Until the next one-shot!**


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